Pages

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Our Preview for This Week's New Releases (for Friday, May 18th)

Andrew: Hello readers! It's a double-whammy kind of day here at Two Tickets For... Because of an internet outage last night we weren't able to post our review of Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy The Dictator until this morning (click on the link to read our review), and now it's time for our Weekly Preview!

Technically The Dictator should have been a part of this preview, but because it came out on a Wednesday it was a day early. Therefore we're going to preview the other two big releases coming out this week starting with Hasbro and Universal's new team-up, Battleship.

Based on the classic Hasbro board game of the same name, Battleship is directed by Peter Berg, who made his name with the film adaptation of Buzz Bissinger's non-fiction book "Friday Night Lights", the television adaptation of the same book, and more recently directed the disappointing Will Smith vehicle Hancock. But the most noticeable thing here is that Berg's movie version of this board game clearly involves more than just naval battleship duking it out on the high seas - Sarah, what do you think of the involvement of aliens in this movie?

Sarah: I have to say, I'm a little leary of this movie. Movies based on rides? Pirates of theCarribbean? The Haunted Mansion? Sure, I can get around that. But a board game? I know Jumangi was a movie about a board game but this is taking it to another level. I used to play this game with my cousins ALL the time. And now they're throwing in aliens? I mean when I saw the preview all I thought was, "Michael Bay is doing a new movie that isn't Transformers?" I don't know, I think that this movie looks like a combination of War of the Worlds and Transformers all rolled into one.

What do you think?

A: When I first heard that Hasbro was going to start doing film adaptations of their board games because of the success of the Transformers franchise, I was skeptical. Then I started reading about the names being attached to some of the announced adaptations my interest was piqued. Check these out:

- A Monopoly movie directed by Ridley Scott, possibly written by Aaron Sorkin - A new Clue movie directed by Gore Verbinski - A Ouija movie being developed by Platinum Dunes, the horror movie production company co-started by Michael Bay and known for their The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th remakes - A Candy Land movie starring Adam Sandler (this one is seriously happening)

And of course, Battleship. Out of all of these Hasbro games, this was the one I was most interested in because I felt that a movie about huge battleships fighting it out would be cool. But then I saw the trailer and it killed any hope I had for it because of the aliens. Now it just looks like a worse version of Transformers.

Official Trailer for Battleship

S: Yeah I'm still not super stoked about the idea of my favorite childhood board games being turned into movies, but I suppose that's not for me to decide. But just know that I will be critiquing them like crazy.

And I'm not too excited about this one if only for the fact that Taylor Kitch was basically ruined for me in John Carter and here he is again in an alien action flick. There are some other, much better names in this movie that I hope won't be tarnished forever by their choice to be in a boardgame movie.

A: You just brought up my next point about my skepticism of this movie - the casting. Taylor Kitsch seems like a nice enough guy but he was miscast in John Carter and I don't have high hopes for him in Battleship. Then you have Rihanna (!) in a lead role and I lose all hope. I'm waiting to see if it can be saved by the awesome Liam Neeson as the Navy Admiral in charge of Kitsch's Lieutenant, so we'll see.

Ok! Next on the agenda is a movie that we're actually kind of looking forward to, and that's the new ensemble comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting. Based off the pregnancy guide book of the same name, this stars a whole lot of famous people (a la Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve):

- Jennifer Lopez (Maid in Manhattan) and Rodrigo Santoro (300) as a couple looking to adopt - Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary) and Matthew Morrison (Glee) as a singer and a dancer, respectively, who are a pair on a celebrity dancing show - Elizabeth Banks (Zack & Miri Make a Porno) and Ben Falcone (Bridesmaids) as a baby boutique guru and her husband who are pregnant for the first time - Brooklyn Decker (Battleship) and Dennis Quiad (The Parent Trap) as an "older man with younger wife" couple, and Quiad also happens to be Falcone's character's father - Anna Kendrick (Up In the Air) as a young woman who gets pregnant from a one-night stand - Chris Rock (Grown-Ups), Rob Huebel (I Love You, Man), Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!) and Amir Talai (Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanimo Bay) as "The Dads", a group of guys who bond together with their kids' playgroup

The trailer makes us laugh almost every time we see it, doesn't it Sarah?

Official Trailer for What to Expect When You're Expecting

S: Oh my gosh, I am so excited to see this one! It looks hilarious and i do laugh every single time I see the trailer. While I am a little hesitant of the integrity of large, highly famous actors all in the movie together, I think this one will be different. Since there are so many comedians I think it will be a nice balace. So many of these actors make me laugh that I am excited to see how they all work together!

Are you excited about this one?

A: I won't say I'm excited per se, because that's a little too much, but I do laugh at the trailer and I'm sort of looking forward to seeing it because of some of the names and because I want to see how well it fares compared to Rob Marshall's two ensemble comedies we mentioned earlier. I actually kind of like Marshall's films, so I want to see if I walk out of this one feeling the same way.

S: Yea, even with New Years Eve we enjoyed ourselves! I'm excited that this summer is looking to be a good mix of action and comedy with a little horror thrown in for good measure.

A: Now that you mention it, I think we should maybe do a Summer Movie Preview sometime soon of what we're looking forward to most in June, July and August. So definitely be on the lookout for that readers!

I can guarantee we will be seeing the two movies we previewed today sometime this weekend, so be on the lookout for those this weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!